Review Kingdom Come - Rendered Waters 2011

Recently I got a reaction from one of the bands I’d reviewed who called me “a huge douche bag” and told me to go fuck myself. A fantastic reaction if you ask me, especially from a band that got a 4/7 review, which should indicate that my opinion about them was pretty neutral. I don’t expect Kingdom Come to have the same reaction because I’m going to be even kinder to them, but I’d love to get a response from them as well – if I can evoke that reaction from a pretty neutral judgment, how classic couldn’t it get with the more extreme ones?

Anyway, to the point. Kingdom Come comes here with their 12th album in 23 years. It’s not really a new album in the way new albums usually are – it’s more of a do-over album where Lenny Wolf and his bad-ass gang takes their really old material and make them fit the sound of today. I think this concept brings two very different feelings to me. One is that it’s a really good idea to take the old material and give it new life by giving them a more modern sound. The other is a really negative one – that by doing this they cast a shadow on their old material saying it’s not good enough to withstand the erosion of time. To be honest, I don’t know which feeling that is strongest but since I like these new recordings perhaps it’s mostly that it’s a good idea to give this 20 year old material a new chance.

Kingdom Come play hard rock with a soft metal approach and they’ve done so since their self-titled debut was released in 1988. Once they were very big with top chart positions 12 and 25 in the US and UK respectively. But that was over 20 years ago, with time passing they’ve vanished more and more from the top popular bands and today the band isn’t what they were seen to popularity but music wise I think they sound great! While they've droped in popularity they've advanced much in their musicanship.

‘Rendered Waters’ only have three (brand) new songs, the other eight are remakes of songs from their earliest albums. The sound is modernized with a more electronic touch. The songs have been refreshed in tempo and sound-wise. Vocals and instruments have been re-recorded and rewritten into a fresher and more 2011-sound. I think this time it’s more ageless and less typical for when it’s recorded. The sound is modern, but not to the extent that it only works now and will become yesterday’s news by tomorrow. To some extent you can still hear that the music comes from the past but thanks to the modern features they’ve added with the rerecording makes it an album I think can last for many years to come.

The production is very good. It’s fresh and clear but with a vinyl-similar sound. The vocals reminds me of a young Ozzy Osbourne that have operated his nose to get rid of the freakishly nasal sound. Like a power vocalist, without the superb voice but with enough charisma to carry it anyway. More importantly, I think, it suits the music. I think the voice and the instrumental sound works as a unit – together. Like Brett Sinclair and Danny Wilde or Sonny Crocket and Rico Tubs. Like partners in good and bad, in law and order or crime. It's quite funny but I thinkt all the rerecorded old songs are very much better than the new songs. It's like the band have focused more on these because it's not only the songs in them selves but the entire package with sound and everything that sounds better. It's almost like Kingdom Come purposely have made the new songs bad to further royalize the older material. But why would anyone want to do that? It would be as stupid as to purposely cut yourself in the face so that the old photos you just printed after editing them in photoshop could make you look better... once. And that's just stupid!

Well, I don't think they've done so on purpose, but since the band is floating around on their boat in a glass of water on the cover of this album - who knows. Surely there must be better water to fare than a drinking glass? Like... a goldfish bowl? Or a zink. Or... oh, I don't know - the sea?! Well, actually it doesn't really matter. Because while the boat is old, the sails are new and since the boat is repainted I think that what you get from the boat that Kingdom Come comes in is a nice ride on the open water... in the glass. The guitars burst out energy and the material sounds better than ever. Lenny is the weakest link with his vocal performance but you know what... even though he's no first class singer and the sound quality on his vocal parts sounds quite badly produced (and it sounds like he sings in to some sort of voice distortion) - it just feels right with them being that way. It gives the album that vintage feel it should have when you reuse eight old songs, like the eco-friendly office products you can buy - they have this different kind of look and feel to it, and that's just what the vocals add to this album.

So in conclusion... Well, Kingdom Come probably have made better albums, but as they take their boat trip in the glass they can be sure they''ve made their old boat look as good as possible before setting out. A redecoration of the boat and some new sails on top of that almost makes you forget that they've taken out their old flagship from past glory and cleaned it up. 'Rendered Waters' is a boat trip worthy to take if you like classic hard rock with a modern, electronic sound. It's a trip that can last for quite a long time, and my guess is that you'll really like it most of the time.

HHHHHHH

Kingdom Come Rendered Waters

Kingdom Come
Rendered Waters